


His Heart Bloomed Sunflowers (and he wore them on his skin)

by LittleMissAgrafina



Series: Comfortember 2020 [24]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Anxiety, Awesome May Parker (Spider-Man), Gen, How Do I Tag, I dunno tagging is hard guys, Kinda?, Memories, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Minor Michelle Jones/Peter Parker, Parent May Parker, Peter Parker Gets a Hug, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker has tattoos, Sunflower, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:28:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27782998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleMissAgrafina/pseuds/LittleMissAgrafina
Summary: Peter honestly didn't know how no one had discovered his tattoos yet. He wasn't broadcasting them but he wasn't exactly being the most subtle either. Although he was partly grateful for it since he was dreading what would happen when May on Tony saw them.But he was pleasantly surprised at the reactions that he got when he was found out. Peter had expected anger, disappointment, maybe annoyance at the very least. What he got was far from that.(A sequel to Comfortember Day 4. Anxiety)---Comfortember Day 29. Make/Build/Create Something Beautiful
Relationships: Ben Parker/May Parker (Spider-Man) (Past), May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones & Peter Parker
Series: Comfortember 2020 [24]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1995808
Comments: 20
Kudos: 189
Collections: Comfortember 2020





	His Heart Bloomed Sunflowers (and he wore them on his skin)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [angxlsgrxce](https://archiveofourown.org/users/angxlsgrxce/gifts).



> Okay... this one was cranked out in an hour. And hour that I was sleep deprived, caffeinated, as in head empty, no thoughts, only sunflower. Lol.  
> So there will probably be a lot of mistakes and I'm pretty sure the general coherency level of this is really bad so I apologise🤣😅  
> One other thing, this was supposed to have both May and Tony's parts but I didn't have enough time to write Tony's so I'll he putting his part in another separate work sometime.  
> Hope you guys like it

  
  


Peter wasn't sure when the idea first came to his mind. When he started getting disappointed each time the drawings on his arms began to fade and wash or wear away.

  
  


It was inevitable, really. It  _ was _ just marker in the end. And the comfort of the ink on his skin and the soothing movements of actually drawing on himself was what he actually did it for. But he found himself wishing that some of the scribbles and doodles would stay, that the yellow petals of the sunflower which had become so precious to him would stay.

  
  


Peter's want for permanence grew more and more until it became an itch that even his markers couldn't scratch. The feel of their ink filled tips was still enough to soothe and calm his anxiety when needed but beyond that, beyond his exhausting, anxious mind and his shaking hands was a starving flower with wilting petals.

  
  


Each drop of ink fed it, nourished it, but it wasn't enough and it wasn't permanent. When the ink faded, so did the vibrancy of the flowers, of its leaves and its petals and its stem.

  
  


It was just a taste of what the flower wanted, of what  _ Peter  _ wanted.

  
  


Eventually the need for permanent, unfading colour became too strong to ignore. 

  
  


Two days later the temporary was made lasting in stinging shades of yellows and greens.

  
  


It stayed.

  
  
  


\---

  
  
  


MJ was the only person he told about wanting a tattoo and not just the drawings anymore.

  
  


All she did was give him a knowing smile and offer to help him come up with some ideas and sketches. They settled on two different ones. One that MJ and Peter did together and one… one that Ben had painted all those years ago now.

  
  


Peter couldn't decide which one he wanted but he thought he would have enough time over the next few days as they looked for a suitable tattoo parlor. He was wrong.

  
  


The morning of his appointment, just an hour before he was set to meet MJ at the subway and make their way together, Peter still had no idea which tattoo he wanted.

  
  


His mind was preoccupied with it for the whole ride to their stop, twisting and turning as he tried to decide which one he wanted more. The bonus to his indecisiveness was that he didn't have a chance to get anxious about the weight and seriousness of what he was about to do.

  
  


_ But why do I have to choose?  _ Peter thought. There wasn't anything really stopping him from doing something to make him happy, to make him feel a sense of permanence again.

  
  


Peter Parker walked into the tattoo parlour with two sketches and his girlfriend at his side.

  
  


He walked out with two different pictures etched on his skin in ink, the tingling remnants of pain from the needle serving a reminder that he had done it. He had permanence now.

  
  


And it was in the shape of a flower.

  
  
  


\---

  
  
  


Peter honestly didn't know how no one had discovered his tattoos yet. He wasn't broadcasting them but he wasn't exactly being the most subtle either. Although he was partly grateful for it since he was dreading what would happen when May on Tony saw them.

  
  


But he was pleasantly surprised at the reactions that he got when he  _ was _ found out. Peter had expected anger, disappointment, maybe annoyance at the very least. What he got was far from that.

  
  


The first person to notice was May. The woman had just gotten home from one of her earlier day shifts at the hospital and was greeted by Peter calling out a hello from the kitchen.

  
  


She called back her own greeting, absent-mindedly telling Peter about a particularly funny case of the after effects morphine as she walked towards the kitchen. She stopped short, her voice cutting off when she caught sight of Peter kneeling to reach into the back of one of the bottom shelves of their counters.

  
  


He was facing away from her and his shirt had ridden up his back from him leaning forward which almost perfectly showed off the ink that she was certain hadn't been on her kid's back a few days ago.

  
  


"Peter," May called out, voice suddenly low and an emotion in it that Peter couldn't name. "What's on your back?"

  
  


"Oh." Peter breathed, freezing for a moment before moving away from the counter and leaning back on his heels. He stayed there for a moment, head hanging as he tried to pluck up the courage to look at his aunt, hoping desperately that he wouldn't see anger despite him expecting it. 

  
  


All of a sudden the weight of what he had done was so clear to Peter. What if she really hated him for doing it?

  
  


Out of nowhere, May's gentle hands were on his shoulders, pushing him slightly and guiding him up to stand and look at her. She was smiling at him, he realised, and her eyes were watering a bit.

  
  


"You don't hate me for doing it?" He asked her. The small, scared tone of his voice almost broke her heart.

  
  


"Oh, baby. I could never, ever, ever, hate you. Especially not for this." May answered him and pulled him close to her, folding him in her arms just as she had for so many years.

  
  


Both of them had tears in their eyes and on their cheeks.

  
  


The reason? Because of the same sunflower that Ben had painted those years ago. The same sunflower that hung on their wall above the recliner that he would curl up in late at night and sketch or paint until his fingers were stained in colour.

  
  


Because that sunflower was inked into the skin of Peter's lower back, starting at the same point as the bullet that had taken his uncle from them.

  
  


The very essence of May's husband was a part of Peter in a way that she could see meant the world to him.

  
  


May realised now that over the last days and weeks, she had seen a change in Peter. That something was soothed and gentler inside his heart.

  
  


And she knew that it was thanks to that tattoo. Something beautiful had been created out of agony and pain. He had immortalized a memory, a love, rather than the empty hurt that had been associated with the petals for so long.

  
  


May would never be angry at him for it, instead she smiled through her tears and told him that it was truly beautiful and special.

  
  


She was not angry, she was proud, and she knew that Ben would be too.

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Just a heads up, I'm going to be editing and reposting these a day or two after the og posting once my beta/s have had time to edit and check them over for me. There won't be massive changes I don't think but I just wanted to put it out there lol


End file.
